Police registered a First Information Report (FIR) against former Sindh home minister and estranged Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and his aides under various sections of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) on Sunday. The FIR, no. 157, was registered on the complaint of local traders' leader Imtiaz Memon under sections 365, 395, 324, 337 of the PPC and sections 6 and 7 of the ATA against Zulfiqar Mirza, 26 known and 60 unknown people at Badin Model Police Station.
Dilber Sindhi, Peroze Shahani, and Abdul Wahid Chandio are among those nominated in the FIR.
Earlier in the day, Zulfiqar Mirza along with his hundreds of his supporters besieged the Model Police Station to register a case against alleged police excesses against his supporters in the Badin district.
Mirza alleged that his aide Nadeem Mughal had been taken into custody illegally and that was why he had gone to the police station with his supporters.
He asked police officials to lodge an FIR based on complaints made by his aide Nadeem against PPP MNA Sardar Kamal Khan Chang, PPP Badin General Secretary Aziz Memon, Taj Mohammad Mallah, traders' leader Imtiaz Ahmed Memon, and other PPP leaders and police officials.
Nadeem Mughal was allegedly arrested by the Crime Investigation Agency for unknown charges but was later released after a protest by supporters.
Prior to his entry into the police station, Mirza's supporters and guards forcibly shut down Taj Mohammad Mallah's and Imtiaz Ahmed's shops. Both Mallah and Ahmed recently joined the PPP during Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah's visit to Badin a few days earlier.
Mirza claims that Nadeem Mughal was whisked away on the behest of PPP leaders. While speaking to media, he said he would go to any extend to protect his supporters from those he referred to as "wolves".
Mirza warned former president Asif Ali Zardari and functionaries of the Sindh government to bridle their leaders, and made it clear he was ready to be arrested for his cause.
Mirza and his supporters left the police station after police's refused to register an FIR.
Following calls from both Mirza's group, as well as PPP leaders, all shops and business centres in the area were shut down, while hundreds of PPP workers staged a rally against what they referred to as "terrorism" by Zulfiqar Mirza and his supporters.
Taj Mohammad Mallah, Imtiaz Ahmed Memon and others demanded of the government to register an FIR against Mirza under the ATA.
During the rally, some miscreants resorted to aerial firing, creating panic in the area. A heavy contingent of police and other law enforcement agencies were deployed in the city to avert any untoward incident.
MNA Sardar Kamal Chang strongly condemned Zulfiqar Mirza's actions, saying that PPP supporters would resist such "acts of terrorism."
He alleged that Zulfiqar Mirza behaved like a "dacoit, breaking the locks of shops and smashing the gate of a police station."
Chang said he was on his way to Badin to rectify the situation as, according to him, infuriated PPP workers had threatened to torch and besiege Mirza's farmhouse at Mourjhar. Chang said he had informed the leadership about the volatile situation in the city.